Family company run out of a former tobacco factory, delighted to display its heritage, says the owner.
PUBLISHED: 25 Apr 2025 at 17: 28
The masters of a Chiang Mai shop that is housed in an ancient tobacco factory and where customers can see workers sorting cigarette leaves have reacted to criticism that the establishment was staging a “human zoo.”
After a user posted a photo of herself enjoying her day in the Yen, a social media wind erupted. CNX eatery Employees sorting tobacco leaves on the ground next to her on the other side of a crystal walls.
The owner of the café wanted to tell its story and the conventional methods of tobacco production, she wrote. The café was again a cigarette factory.
Suwadee Punpanich, CEO of Thonburi Sermrath, a Bangkok-based health clinic operator, posted the photo on Wednesday’s Facebook page.
By Friday, it had received over 7, 000 opinions, many of which lamented the significant cultural class space, with some calling the presentation a “human zoo.”
” I work in the cafe. But, seeing people working outside as a show in warm weather wouldn’t make me feel at all at ease,” one comment reads.
Ms. Suwadee responded on Friday that she respected native ways of living and was grateful that places like the café helped to showcase standard procedures after the image became the subject of conversation on social advertising.
” I don’t like the appearance “human park.” She said that it demonstrated that the readers have thin thinking and attack the workers who have their respect and dignity.
The café even responded to our question on its Facebook page by noting that the view had” shifted from what we intended to show.”
According to the statement, the cigarette shop was a family-run enterprise that had been passed down through the generations. The user wanted to present the family’s history in a fresh, understandable way while preserving it.
According to them, the room was intended to display the factory’s ancient structures with actual workers demonstrating their skills.
The lecture was not intended as amusement, the statement goes. This is how the real processing of foliage is done, according to the café owners, who live in the area from January to May each year.
They were paid pretty and weren’t hired for a present.